Beach Royale

DO NOT RENT FROM THIS COMPANY, which also goes by the name MARK ADAM & CO and lists its apartments available for rent (mostly in the Marina) with the name «Mariola» in the listings. This company is owned by Monica and Alan Zimmerman. Beware of any rental apartments listed by them.
My fiancé and I rented an apartment with them at 1601 Beach Street from 2011 – 2012. The apartment, admittedly, was beautiful, but the owner is incredibly unpleasant and difficult.
Shortly after we moved in we began experiencing issues. The apartment we moved into had a deck attached to it and we were charged quite a bit more than the other, similar apartments in the building because of the deck. When we saw the apartment, we noticed the deck had big burns in it, which we were told were from the previous tenant. We were also told the deck would be repaired before we moved in. That didn’t happen. And, it didn’t happen for more than a month and a half until I pestered them to finally repair it.
After the deck was «repaired» was when the real trouble began. Because we weren’t able to use the deck for more than the whole first month we were there, I asked if we could be compensated by reducing our next month’s rent. We figured we were paying roughly $ 400 more for the apartment with the deck than the other units, so I started with this amount. The owner refused. I then requested she meet me halfway. She refused again, telling me I was «irrational» and she never credits any amount of money for any reason. I finally told her that was fine and I now understood what kind of landlord she would be. She told me that she wished she never rented the apartment to me and my deadbeat boyfriend (note: my fiancé is not a deadbeat). Fine. We mentally prepared for a difficult year and decided we’d move as soon as the lease was up.
Fast forward to the end of the lease. First, when we re-​looked at the lease to find out how and when we could get out of it, we noticed we were charged a daily rate for a few days in Feb at the end of the month when we moved in. One of the days we were charged for was Feb 29, but 2011 wasn’t a leap year… People make mistakes, but I did want the $ 100 credited to us, so I deducted from our last month’s rent. No big deal.
Before move-​out, a landlord is required to do a walk-​through inspection with you and provide an itemized statement of any work that needs to be done in order to get the security deposit back. The manager, Mariola, did this inspection with me. Because I knew how difficult this company could be, I went the extra mile and hired a professional move-​out cleaner to clean the apartment. Mariola said the apartment was in a good shape, but requested (never in writing) that the oven be cleaned and, get this, THE OUTSIDE OF THE WINDOWS BE CLEANED BY PROFESSIONAL WINDOW CLEANERS. No one I have ever spoken to, including the Rent Board, has ever heard of that. But, I did it. I did it because I wanted the full deposit back.
During the inspection, I did point out to her the deck that they had repaired was never surfaced correctly and because of this, dirt and water accumulated on it. Mariola told me that was fine, she knew it was a problem and that this was considered normal wear and tear.
Yesterday, I received the security deposit back. NOT THE FULL AMOUNT, even after having both a professional cleaner and window cleaner come. What was I charged for? CLEANING THE DECK! AND, GET THIS — $ 60 for paying the wrong amount in May… YET AGAIN, they «mis-​calculated» the rent (charging me a daily rate for 30 days in May, not 31). In addition, they wrote «PAYMENT IN FULL» on the back of the check, so I can’t even deposit the amount they did pay in the bank.
Renter’s beware… While the apartments look nice, this place nickles and dimes and sneaks in charges here and there. If you are lured in and do rent, make sure you get EVERYTHING in writing from them and ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS check their math.